Bang Bang Club: Russia, China Team Up For 'Tsentr 2019' War Games

A helicopter gunship hammers a hillside near Dushanbe, Tajikistan, during the Tsentr 2019 military exercises that run from September 16-21.

Armored vehicles grind through a Kazakh desert on September 16. The war games will involve troops from Russia, China, India, and Pakistan, along with the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Snipers in ghillie suits during the exercises in Tajikistan.

Russian troops rappel out of an armed transport helicopter in western Russia.

An Iskander missile blasts off at a testing range in Kazakhstan. According to Russia’s state-funded media, the scenario of the games is that radical Islamists have formed a rogue state “in the southwest of Russia.”

A missile strikes a mock terrorist camp in the Kazakh missile-testing range. The hypothetical mission of Tsentr 2019 is to take out the renegade government and stop radical Islamism from spreading “into the territories of neighboring countries.”

Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov (left) and Vladimir Putin grab a bite to eat after observing the maneuvers. Jeenbenkov was the only foreign leader to attend the exercises.

Russian troops on a section of a pontoon bridge being chugged across central Russia’s Tom River. The Kremlin claims 128,000 troops are involved in the exercises, though foreign observers have suggested that number may be inflated to exaggerate the strength of Russia’s military.
 

An Osa missile-launch vehicle crossing the Tom River.

A section of a pontoon bridge being backed into the Tom River.
 

Unfolding a section of the pontoon bridge.
 

Vehicles, including self-propelled artillery being floated across the Tom River on a section of a pontoon bridge.

Kazakh army officers during the exercises. Troops will be under extra scrutiny during the exercises after an incident, apparently during similar war games in 2018, in which a helicopter accidentally loosed off a barrage of missiles at bystanders.

Tanks fire from hull-down positions in Russia's Kemorovo region during the war games on September 19. 

Vladimir Putin watches maneuvers in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast on September 20. The games are due to end with a bang on September 20 and 21, when a final assault will be launched against the hypothetical Islamist government.